Amanda Bynes: Odd dog-washing, and a possible conservatorship

Christie DZurilla

As more details emerged about Amanda Bynes' fiery Monday adventures — activities that saw her hospitalized on an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold — it was reported that her parents may be pursuing a conservatorship for their wayward daughter.

Lynn and Rick Bynes, who were photographed Tuesday leaving the hospital where Amanda is being held and have expressed concerns about her behavior for a year, have allegedly discussed obtaining a conservatorship similar to the the one that's helped Britney Spears get her life back together. That's what L.A. Now was reporting Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the "Easy A" actress' latest run-in with authorities who's not authorized to speak about it publicly.

Under such a court order, Bynes' basic life decisions would fall to someone else.

The former child star has in the past told friends she didn't need such a conservatorship because she had no substance abuse or mental health issues, TMZ reported last September.

Bynes' activities Monday would suggest otherwise.

The "She's the Man" star was spotted with her pants leg on fire next to a small blaze that had been sparked in a stranger's driveway in Thousand Oaks, witness Andrew Liverpool told various outlets. She was in possession of a red gas can and a small Pomeranian.

Liverpool stopped his car and helped by moving the gas can away from the flames as others arrived to help. Bynes had left the scene, he said, so he got back in his car and found her eventually on the next block over.

There, she tried to get into a cab and ride away. He said he told the driver not to take her, adding that she, whom he now recognized as a famous face, was saying that her dog had been burned. (The dog is fine, incidentally, and was picked up by her parents shortly after she was hospitalized, TMZ said.) However, the cab sped off while Liverpool called 911, which alerted cops to the cab, the New York Daily News reported. Authorities found her a short time after that.

It was the dog's condition that apparently had motivated her, after leaving the scene of the fire, to enter a nearby liquor store and proceed back into an employees-only area to rinse off the pup in the sink, TMZ reported Wednesday. The cashier, who followed the blond-wigged Bynes into the back area to see what was up, apparently smelled a strong odor of gasoline.

Once confronted, Bynes quickly left the store. The episode was captured by security cameras.

Given the extenuating circumstances of possible mental illness, Bynes reportedly won't be charged with a crime for the alleged arson. That said, she still faces a DUI charge in L.A. and drug-related charges in New York, where she allegedly threw a bong — she said it was a vase — out of her 36th floor apartment in front of law enforcement officers.

The only pleasant news coming out of the situation? The notorious Twitter user's often-volatile account has been silent since a few days before she was taken into custody.